iReadIT | DC’s NEW HISTORY of the DC UNIVERSE

Now available from DC

For 90 years, DC Comics has endured, introducing the most dynamic Super Heroes and delivering a pantheon of characters that have elaborated on an epic mythology for the ages, which is still being written.

The daunting task of cataloguing a mythology as intricate as that of the DC comics universe, one that has been in perpetual motion for over nine decades, is no small feat. It’s no surprise that an ably talented creative writer like Mark Waid (The Flash, World’s Finest, Justice League Unlimited) was tasked with assembling such a narrative for the recently published NEW HISTORY of the DC UNIVERSE. The four-issue, prestige format volume has been released in hardback, with a foreword by the legendary Marv Wolfman, who, along with George Pérez, brought us the epic 12-part crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985), forever resetting the course of DC’s [then] 50-year history into something more aesthetically manageable…until it wasn’t any longer.

To bear to grip the complexities of the DC mythology, one has to go back to the Golden Age of comics land the introduction of one Man of Steel. Action Comics #1, published in 1938, introducing Superman, ushered in the Age of the Super Hero. Batman, The Flash, and Wonder Woman would soon follow, and before long, an entire cast of mystery men and women emerged to defend our shores from the threat of Nazis. As the comics entered a Silver Age, (re)introduced many of the original heroes’ heirs apparent. Along the way, the multiverse was discovered, allowing modern-day heroes to inhabit an entirely new sphere that paralleled the world of their Golden Age contemporaries. In time, the veil between these multiple earths became thinner and more difficult to contain.

As the 50th Anniversary of DC Comics loomed, Wolfman pitched the idea to editor Dick Giordano of a revised “History of the DC Universe,” and soon recruited Pérez (as artist and co-plotter) to appeal to Jenette Kahn, the then-president of the publishing imprint, with an idea for streamlining the convoluted history of DC mythology. The 12-part series would chronicle our heroes’ efforts to defend their multiverse from the sinister threat of the Anti-Monitor, but inevitably, some worlds would live, and others would die. In the end, the multiverse was replaced with a universe and a single prime earth, with a new and colorful history, revamping and charting a new legacy.

The success of the “crisis” event, both as a narrative and as a publishing heavy hitter, left DC in a quandary. There were several continuity inconsistencies left in the wake of “crisis” that would require some retooling over the course of time, and there was also the temptation left for creatives to “one up” one another. As the dust settled, inevitably, Darkseid seized on the opportunity to test the legends of the DC universe. New alliances were born, the next generation of heroes entered notoriety, and the Golden Age of heroes reemerged and claimed their stake. As the years passed, crises persisted, heroes perished and returned from the grave, and, as if in protest, the multiverse was reborn!

It is Written…

With all the various crises faced over the years, a flashpoint that basically rebooted everything, seismically shaking things up so violently that it led to a veritable rebirth, and that still didn’t clean up much of the mess. Where there was once some sense of clarity, it had been set asunder, and ever since has been an unruly calamity that eventually demanded some reindexing. All paths led to DC’s New History of the DC Universe. The challenge of reiterating, which has landed on one Barry Allen, the one-time fastest man alive.

Having passed the mantle of “The Flash” full-time to Wally West, the now-powerless CSI investigator and the hero at the heart of the Silver Age, has instead settled in to chronicle his vast traverse through the multiverse. Before losing his powers, Barry, along with his apprentice, the second Kid Flash, Wallace West, and the youngest of Iris West’s nephews, set out to map the multiverse, a mission that ended with all of the multiverse facing a Dark Crisis of impossible proportions! The world believed the Justice League had been murdered, and while the remaining heroes dealt with the calamitous forces at work, The Flash set out to find his missing teammates.

In the end, the missing heroes were found, and the villainous attempt to restore the multiverse to its original state before the first Great Crisis was thwarted, but not without consequences (of course). And the cycle has gone on and on. It begs the question: why undertake such a debilitating task as arbitrarily chronicling the history of the multiverse when it is in constant upheaval?

At the conclusion of the first Crisis, Wolfman and Pérez felt obligated to illustrate the new direction of historical events set by the collapse of the multiverse. DC published the two-volume tome, History of the DC Universe, in 1986, even as the new, prime Earth cooled following the seismic confrontation with the Anti-Monitor. Much of the continuity was still fluid, even as a new origin story unfolded for the Man of Steel, the mission of Gotham City’s Dark Knight was one waged far deeper in the shadows, and the princess from Paradise Island had only just stepped onto the shores of Man’s World. The two-volume narrative is told from the perspective of Lyla, the Harbinger, a witness to it all.

As the agent of the Monitor, the mastermind responsible for assembling the multiverse’s defense against his ultimate nemesis, the Anti-Monitor, Harbinger relates in an impassioned narrative the “new” history of the universe, and the dawn of heroism, even taking us into the possibilities of a legion of heroes that rise in the 31st Century. That history, that singular chronology, served DC well, as legends rose, and an alien invasion entered Sol space, until the sundering of a zero hour eclipsed it all, and the timestream was once again reset.

History Revisited, Revised, Rebooted!

Each crisis event ascended on a trajectory that accelerated one after the other. It was imperative that the heroes keep up with each escalation, but it was inevitable that, with each passing threat, they would become increasingly personal. As the world grew darker and more despondent, it mourned a superman; it broke a crusader’s back; and eventually, the multiverse reacted with a crisis of infinite proportions. In the wake of this climactic confrontation with remnants of the First Crisis, 52 distinct multiverses were created, and history had once again been altered. It’s a cycle that has continued at an exhaustive pace, cycle after cycle.

In his 4-volume set, Waid expertly moves from one historical measure to the next. His words are beautifully illustrated by several of DC’s most gifted artists, but the elegant and effortless flow of its predecessor is lost to the ages. The overall story spins so incohesively and out of control that if not for Waid and his artists, it would scarcely appear as if there’s a beginning, middle, or end. In the end, New History of the DC Universe only gives a glimpse of just how convoluted, uninteresting, and unhinged the modern era of comics has been for DC.

That is not to insist that, as encapsulated, singular story arcs, many of these overarching narratives have not been engaging, but how they’ve contributed to an overall historical account makes them all appear superbulous, forgetful in some cases, as compared to the prior account that marked 50 years of DC history. It’s important and intriguing to view the comic giant’s continuity through the lens, but it’s unfortunate that it’s all consumable in a volume that makes it all appear chaotic and incongruent. That is not a slight on the efforts of Mark Waid and the artists involved, who have left nothing on the table; unfortunately, that’s exactly what this new history feels and reads like.

It’s a bit of a mess, save for the foreword by veteran legend Marv Wolfman, but the effort is still appreciated.

NEW HISTORY of the DC UNIVERSE | by Mark Waid with art by Todd Nauck, Jerry Ordway, Brad Walker, Michael Allred, Dan Jurgens, Doug Mahnke, Norm Rapmund, Howard Porter, Hayden Sherman is available on Amazon.

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